Summary of State of Denial

Missed Opportunities

The complicated decision to invade Iraq was influenced by many past and present events, personalities and motivations. After al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, U.S. President George W. Bush wanted to focus on Afghanistan to catch Osama bin Laden. Then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wanted to pursue unfinished business left in Iraq by Bush’s father, former President George H.W. Bush. Yet, the former president was one of the leaders who had serious reservations about invading Iraq.

At a Washington dinner in January 2003, Barbara Bush, wife of the former president and mother of the current one, told the former chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence that the senior Bush was losing sleep about the upcoming war, but was reluctant to advise his son. The elder Bush always hesitated to counsel his son since that could make the president appear weak. But, during the same conversation, the elder Bush said he hoped then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, who advocated a diplomatic solution in Iraq, would prevail. This was just one indication of the tensions building between the State Department and the Pentagon ...